Financial Planning - December 2012

“My husband hates money,” the distraught client told Greenleaf. Having had other clients who feared that they would appear greedy, Greenleaf suggested that the woman tell her spouse that it would not be his money. “It’s for the children; he is investing it for the kids,” Greenleaf says she told the woman.

Gregory Erwin Crawford, a finan-
cial planner at Sierra Nevada Wealth
Management in Reno, Nev., steers
away from the word “greed.” He also
dispenses with the word “fear.”
“They have such negative con-
notations,” says Crawford, whose
firm has $110 million in assets under
management. Instead, Crawford

401(k) Contributions rose by up to
2.2%
of inCome when emails to
employees Contained the phrase
‘a high savings goal.’

John R. Levy, a financial planner with Paraklete Financial in Walnut Creek, Calif., cherishes one catchphrase when discussing with clients the significance of tax laws: “Jail is a four-letter word,” he says with a laugh.

Levy, who only provides advice
die first. They leave, and a half-hour
later, a truck runs over the bride.

Planners say they have found that certain expressions consistently
trigger certain responses from their clients.

talks about “volatility” and “returns.” He tells clients who are concerned about risks: “You are paid over time for volatility.”

AVOIDING BLUNT

Dusty Wallace, a financial planner
whose Dallas-based company, Lee
Financial, has $909 million in assets
under management, says, “I am a
very blunt person, but I have several
clients who don’t work well with
blunt.”
Wallace has trained herself to
choose her language carefully with
those clients. “I never say, ‘You are
wrong,’” Wallace says. Instead, when
they start to disagree with her ideas,
Wallace says, “Here’s the problem. Will
you help find the solution?”
She says the inquiring approach
works wonders. “Then you’ve got their
buy-in,” she says.

Financial-Planning.com

to clients and has no assets under management, concedes that most of the language he chooses to prod clients entails a bit more verbiage. “I tend to talk too much,” Levy says. “Clients are self-sorting. People who like my long-winded approach stick with me.”

USING STORIES

To get clients moving in the right
directions, Levy says, “I tell little sto-
ries, rather than specific words. I use
anecdotal approaches. I find people
hear it better that way.”
What’s his favorite? “The John
Levy truck story, with an airplane
corollary.”
Here’s how it goes: an 80-year-
old man and his recent 18-year-old
bride walk into his office and set
their financial plans on the assump-
tion that the elderly husband will
room, right between their couch and
their television.